Friday, December 12, 2014

Mapping School Segregation

Sixty years after the 'Brown vs Board of Education' Supreme Court ruling that state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students was unconstitutional many schools in the United States remain, to all intents and purposes, segregated by race.

Diversity in New York City's Schools is a Google Map visualizing the largest racial group in each New York school. Each school is represented by a dot, colored to reveal the largest racial group within that school. If you select a school's marker on the map you can view a breakdown of that school's racial make-up.

The map uses colored map markers to highlight schools on the map where
85% or more of the students are black or Hispanic. You can select
individual schools on the map to view the complete demographic make-up
of the student body, with percentages for the number of black, white,
Hispanic and 'other' students.

The sectarian divide in Northern Ireland has resulted in a large
proportion of people living in areas where the population are either
predominantly Protestant or predominantly Roman
Catholic. To overcome this religious 'apartheid' and to ensure that the
children of both religions are not segregated Northern Ireland needs
inclusive schools, schools where pupils are able to mix and learn
alongside children of other religions.

Unfortunately Northern Ireland's schools are as segregated as the rest of Northern Ireland society. According to The Detail "almost
half of Northern Ireland’s schoolchildren are being taught in schools
where 95% or more of the pupils are of the same religion".

The Detail has used data from the Department of Education to map the
religious segregation in Northern Ireland's schools. The Detail's Segregated Schools map reveals the percentage of Roman Catholic and Protestant pupils in each of Northern Ireland's schools.